help with cloudy water

[Yinger]

I just started to add vinegar to my top off to lower my pH. It was climbing around 8.43 or so, however I noticed today my water was a little more milky than normal. Its still completely see through, but you can definitely tell there's something going on. I think i may have a bacterial bloom right now. I dose kalk through a peristaltic pump and now I mixed it with some vinegar. What should i do to get rid of the cloudiness?

 

[SurfOnH20]

Have you tried running some good o'l carbon ?

 

[Yinger]

yup, running some zeovit carbon... supposed to be good i guess haha

 

[Mchava]

hey Ying if you are having an algea bloom make sure you run your skimmer a little wetter then before. Also you might want to check what your alk level is at. It might also have something to do with to much kalk. Just some thing that I have gone through.
Mario

 

[Yinger]

Mario, will an algae boom cause the tank to turn a little more milky white? My skimmer was going crazy when i woke up this morning. My kalk was 9.2 when i tested it in hte afternoon. I just added new carbon and turn the skimmer to skim wet. we'll see though. thanks for the advice!

 

[Mchava]

yes an algea bloom will make your skimmer go nuts. you will also see that the glass and overflow box will have a powder look to it. I do have one question why did you add viniger to the water?

 

[Yinger]

I added vinegar to the top off to lower the pH of the kalk. It helped, but then my water turned milky. u think the corals should be able to survive it?

 

[omeg]

yinger, I've good results using a canister filter loaded with carbon. I think it's much better than just throwing carbon into a sump.

 

[laverda]

Are you adding the viniger to the top off with your kalk? If so, I wonder if your getting some kind of reaction from the Kalk and vinegar together. I does not take much vinegar, but I would not add it to the Kalk.

 

[ezcompany]

try some chemipure?

 

[JenDub]

vinegar added to the kalk water creates super saturated kalk, if you want your ph to come down turn off your mixing pump and be sure no undissolved kalk is entering the sump (limewater is too milky).

I'll bet dollars for doughnuts that your alk is through the roof....

 

[Yinger]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7944692#post7944692 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JenDub
vinegar added to the kalk water creates super saturated kalk, if you want your ph to come down turn off your mixing pump and be sure no undissolved kalk is entering the sump (limewater is too milky).

I'll bet dollars for doughnuts that your alk is through the roof....

I only add about 2-3 teaspoons of kalk ina 5 gallon jug of RO/DI water. My alk was 9.2 yesterday when i tested it and its been around that since i setup the tank. The CA is 425 which is fine. My pH actually is stable at around 8.25-8.35. I mainly used the vinegar to lower the pH because it was getting around 8.43 towards the end of the lighting cycle.

 

[JenDub]

Have you tested alk since it got cloudy?

 

[Yinger]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7944937#post7944937 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JenDub
Have you tested alk since it got cloudy?

yup, that was after it got cloudy... i just did a water change right now and going to change out that batch of top off water... we'll see if it helps